The Louisville football program has reached new levels in the past five years, and that’ll be apparent again when the school hires a new head coach.

Not in the modern era has Louisville lured away a sitting head coach at a Power Five school. Of course, that’s what athletic director Vince Tyra is expected to attempt with heir apparent Jeff Brohm.

Bobby Petrino in 2014 was the head coach at Western Kentucky. Charlie Strong in 2009 was the defensive coordinator at Florida. Steve Kragthorpe in 2007 was the head coach at Tulsa. Petrino in 2002 was the offensive coordinator at Auburn. John L. Smith in 1997 was the head coach at Utah State. Ron Cooper in 1994 was the head coach at Eastern Michigan.

That’s the pool in which Louisville would likely be searching if it didn’t hire Brohm — winning Group of Five head coaches and top-tier Power Five coordinators.

But Louisville will have more pull than it has at any time in its history because of its presence in the ACC, its recent history of competing for championships and its potential recruiting base. The team’s 2-9 record notwithstanding, this has been a coveted job and will be again this December.

“We’ve been a winning program,” Tyra said. “You guys have pointed out as much as anybody, and it’s the obvious: Two years ago we were on the cusp of pushing towards getting in the playoff. We’re not that far removed from that. I think facilities, we’ve improved. I think support, we’re improving that in what we’re doing, the fan engagement, student engagement, no matter what it is.”

The market

Louisville is entering the market for a head coach at the right time. There won’t be many plum head coaching jobs opening this season.

Only four Power Five schools have fired their coaches this season — Kansas, Maryland, Colorado and Louisville — and it’s going to be a tame December on that front. Kansas has already hired Les Miles. Kansas State’s Bill Snyder, USC's Clay Helton and North Carolina’s Larry Fedora are in various degrees of trouble. But it’s hard to see more than seven or eight Power Five jobs changing hands.

Last season, that number was 13, and many of those were top-tier jobs: Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and others. If Louisville had gone through this process a year ago, the competition would have been stiff.

Miles likely wouldn’t have been a candidate here, but Kansas athletic director Jeff Long mentioned a desire to expedite the hiring process to avoid losing Miles to another suitor, which is a factor in an era in which midseason firings have become common.

But of the other three jobs open, Louisville’s is arguably the most desirable. The Cardinals have won at a high level more recently than Colorado and Maryland, and the path back to the top is clearer. Every situation is different, and those three schools’ candidate pools won’t overlap much.

There won’t be many other top competitors, other than perhaps USC. Louisville is paying its head coach more money than any of those other schools. Bobby Petrino is making $3,980,434, and the rest sit between $1.7 million (Kansas’ David Beaty) and $3.5 million (Snyder).

In the end, there are only 64 Power Five coaching jobs, and there are successful coaches at the lower levels looking to snatch them up. This time around, Louisville can offer that stature and access to national championships that it just couldn’t before.

The roster

There is a ceiling for Louisville football that makes this a different situation than the blue bloods who sought new coaches last season. On the field, the Cards are a long way from Clemson at the top of the ACC. Without a Heisman Trophy winner, they won’t match those teams in talent.

Of the Power Five schools who seek coaches each year, few are in the position to win right away, and Louisville is no exception. The Cards were not competitive in the ACC this season, and they’ll need a rebuilding project to return to where they were two years ago.

Uncertainty at quarterback is the most pressing issue. Louisville has cycled through quarterbacks in eight of 11 games this season, preventing consistency from any of its signal callers.

Jawon Pass has eight touchdowns against 12 interceptions. Malik Cunningham has been promising, but mostly as a runner — he has only 1 more passing yard than he has rushing yards. Freshman Jordan Travis has announced his intention to transfer.

Those were the only scholarship quarterbacks on this year’s roster, leaving open the possibility that a new head coach could search for an addition.

The only quarterback committed to join Louisville in 2019 is Jaden Johnson from Kirby High School in Memphis, Tennessee. The three-star prospect will likely need time to develop.

Louisville could pursue a graduate transfer or junior-college transfer, but time is running out for that possibility. Most of those players would sign in the early signing period beginning Dec. 19. Clemson transfer Kelly Bryant will reportedly announce his decision on Dec. 4 from a list of schools that does not include Louisville. Alabama’s Jalen Hurts may also look for a new home, and he'd have no shortage of options.

Louisville has not chased any other quarterback prospects. According to the 247sports.com database, the school has offered only five in the 2019 class, and all are high school recruits who have already committed.

Recruiting potential

Many coaches agree that Louisville has untapped potential in recruiting. Before the program plummeted in that area this season, with a 2019 class that ranks 73rd in 247sports.com’s rankings, recruiting was improving over the previous seven seasons: from 45th to 36th to 45th to 33rd to 38th to 34th to 30th last year.

There, too, the ACC brand has bolstered Louisville. That’s an advantage, as is the $63.25 million stadium expansion project completed this summer.

Louisville won’t compete with Clemson and Florida State in recruiting, but the ACC isn’t a top-tier recruiting conference, either. Clemson and Florida State are the only two schools in the conference with top-20 recruiting classes in 2019.

The Cards ranked No. 30 in 2018 with a head coach who was not an active recruiter. They have an uphill battle in front of them for the 2019 class, but with the right coaching staff it wouldn’t take long for Louisville to start bringing in top-20 classes.

Linebackers coach Cort Dennison and recruiting staffer Stephen Field were among the architects of that 2018 class before they left for Oregon after the season. They had strong connections in Florida, and the state would be a key target for a new head coach. Louisville could return as many as 17 players from 13 different high schools in that fertile recruiting ground. Those relationships are important.

The recruiting base hits on the most attractive part of Louisville and other Power Five jobs: potential. The new head coach will take over a program coming off a two- or three-win season. But Louisville will have enough to sell.

“I think talent-wise isn’t where we’re playing,” Tyra said. “I think the talent’s better than what you’ve seen in the scoreboard, and I think that there’s a lot to sell in that. A lot of the coaches that would be interested in this job probably recruited a lot of these same kids that are sitting in these classes, particularly last year’s class, which is very talented and has played a lot of minutes this year.”